The problem of controlling static charge during plastic web manufacturing and transport is well known. Generation and uncontrolled discharge of electrostatic charge can cause a number of serious problems including safety hazards. In the field of imaging, particularly photography, the accumulation of charge on film or paper surfaces leads to the attraction of dirt, which can produce physical defects. The discharge of accumulated charge during or after the application of the sensitized emulsion layer(s) can produce irregular fog patterns or “static marks” in the emulsion. The static problems have been aggravated by increase in the sensitivity of new emulsions, increase in coating machine speeds, and increase in post-coating drying efficiency. The charge generated during the coating process may accumulate during winding and unwinding operations, during transport through the coating machines and during finishing operations such as slitting and spooling.
It is generally known that electrostatic charge can be dissipated effectively by incorporating one or more electrically-conductive “antistatic” layers into the support structure. Typical location of an antistatic layer is an external surface, which comes in contact with various transport rollers. For imaging elements, the antistatic layer is usually placed on the side of the support opposite to the imaging layer. The imaging element may also have a dual system for control of static in which the resin-coated paper contains both ionically conductive salts and water as well as a conductor on the outside of the backside resin layer.
A wide variety of electrically-conductive materials can be incorporated into antistatic layers to produce a wide range of conductivities. These can be divided into two broad groups: (i) ionic conductors and (ii) electronic conductors. In ionic conductors charge is transferred by the bulk diffusion of charged species through an electrolyte. Here the resistivity of the antistatic layer is dependent on temperature and humidity. Antistatic layers containing simple inorganic salts, alkali metal salts of surfactants, ionic conductive polymers, polymeric electrolytes containing alkali metal salts, and colloidal metal oxide sols (stabilized by metal salts), described previously in patent literature, fall in this category. However, many of the inorganic salts, polymeric electrolytes, and low molecular weight surfactants used are water-soluble and are leached out of the antistatic layers during processing, resulting in a loss of antistatic function. The conductivity of antistatic layers employing an electronic conductor depends on electronic mobility rather than ionic mobility and is independent of humidity. Antistatic layers which contain conjugated polymers, semi-conductive metal halide salts, and semi-conductive metal oxide particles, have been described previously. However, these antistatic layers typically contain a high volume percentage of electronically conducting materials, which are often expensive and impart unfavorable physical characteristics, such as color, increased brittleness and poor adhesion, to the antistatic layer.
A vast majority of the prior art involves coatings of antistatic layers from aqueous or organic solvent based coating compositions. For photographic paper, typically antistatic layers based on ionic conductors, are coated out of aqueous and/or organic solvent based formulations, which necessitate an effective elimination of the solvent. Under fast drying conditions, as dictated by efficiency, formation of such layers may pose some problems. An improper drying will invariably cause coating defects and inadequate adhesion and/or cohesion of the antistatic layer, generating waste or inferior performance. Poor adhesion or cohesion of the antistatic layer can lead to unacceptable dusting and track-off. A discontinuous antistatic layer, resulting from dusting, flaking, or other causes, may exhibit poor conductivity, and may not provide necessary static protection. It can also allow leaching of calcium stearate from the paper support into the processing tanks causing build-up of stearate sludge. Flakes of the antistatic backing in the processing solution can form soft tar-like species, which, even in extremely small amounts, can re-deposit as smudges on drier rollers eventually transferring to image areas of the photographic paper, creating unacceptable defects.
Moreover, majority of antistats on current photographic paper products lose their electrical conductivity after photographic processing due to their ionic nature. This can cause print sticking after drying in the photo processor, and/or in a stack.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,197,486 and 6,207,361, antistatic layers have been disclosed which can be formed through the (co)-extrusion method thus eliminating the need to coat the support in a separate step and rendering the manufacturing process less costly.
With the development of all plastic web media, such as, for example, foam-core polymer sheets, the conductivity requirements of the plastic web media are typically increased because there is no paper base that contains water and salt to provide conductivity. The web media may require the addition of an electronically conducting material such as tin oxide, polythiophene and others. Some of these materials have color associated with them at various coverages. These materials are also very expensive when compared to more conventional antistatic compounds.
Imaging supports often have a logo or other graphic design located on the backside of the support that provides brand recognition. During the manufacture of such supports, a dye or pigment is imprinted in the form of the desired graphic onto a paper core that is then coated over with a clear layer of resin. Such a printing operation requires a separate process of printing and drying. This adds complexity and additional cost in terms of material, energy to dry the inks, and waste that is associated with the printing process. Additionally the manufacturing process also requires a separate operation in which an antistatic layer is applied to the resin coated paper.